An Evaluation and Analysis of Issues Confronting Homeless LGBT Youth from the Perspective of Social Service Agency Providers

Literature Review Homelessness is an acute condition of poverty that has been a continuous concern in the United States. While single adult men account for the majority of the homeless population, the number of children, youths, single mothers, and poor or working poor experiencing homelessness in the United States is steadily increasing, making it an even larger social problem for the future of this country (Hernandez Jozefowicz-Simbeni and Israel 2006, 37). In the midst of the recession following the financial turmoil in 2008, poverty and unemployment increased more tremendously for young adults ages 18 to 24 than for other adult age groups in the United States (Toolis and Hammack 2015, 50). Likewise, unaccompanied youth are a continuously growing portion of the vulnerable homeless population. By definition, unaccompanied homeless youth are younger than the age of 22, live without any variation of parental guidance on a daily basis, and lack a fixed and regular shelter complete with care and supervision (Massachusetts Appleseed Center for Law and Justice 2012, 2). Records from 2008 indicate that over 1.6 million United States youth under the age of 18 experienced some form of homelessness annually, while the number of young people in general experiencing an episode of homelessness in a year is estimated at 750,000 to 2 million (Massachusetts Appleseed Center for Law and Justice 2012, 2; Toolis and Hammack 2015, 50). In addition to this, a study from the National Health Care for the Homeless Council found that young adults also, on average, have less income, fewer benefits, less saved money, less support socially, and little to no knowledge about housing benefits and resources in comparison to older adults (Toolis and Hammock 2015, 50). Aside from striving to survive daily and a lack of belongings, homeless youth also inherit a number of psychological issues, often to the socially constructed view of homeless individuals in general (Toolis and Hammack 2015, 50). In a psychological study evaluating the neural patterns when viewing images of " extreme out-groups, " it was found that homeless individuals were perceived as disgusting. This same reaction of disgust came from an image of an overflowing toilet and vomit, indicating the innate tendency to dehumanize homeless individuals (Harris and Fiske 2006, 848). The negative public perceptions, stigma, and inherent stereotypes about homeless youth are born from a society that culturally believes that poverty is equated to individual failure (Toolis and Hammack 2015, …